14 11 n l i i 19 96 C I T E ilimy SII

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Shipley's Donul Ship at W»l Guy ond Dunlovy, « . 1479; demolished

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!l a n» u Soma Clous display. 1941, in front ol Mrs. Boird's Bakery, 1700 block Wesl Gray, Alfred C. Finn, 1938; demolished.

Gray Avenue is nol o patkulaity lustious street, even by Houston standards. It is named far on eminent Houston jurist, Peter Gray ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 7 4 ) , but no one reolly

knows mot anymore. It shows up in maps as eorly as 1866 running perpendicular la Maia Sheet lor a dozen 01 so blocks, but it wos not until the mid-1930s that West Gray anived at the gates ol River Oaks, o ten-rninute drive fiom downtown, os the Hogg bratheis' promotional brochuie bad piomised. Despite its impeccable namesake, chromatic connotations die baid. So when Giay slipped acioss Shepherd Dave into the cabin class section of River Oaks, en roule to the eponymous country club, it exchanged its nome for the tonier, verdani Inwood ond never looked hack.

Well, almost aevei. f oi eithei side ol the two blocks just east ol the (die bosque of River Oaks, Wesl Gray — with a lit-tle help bom Ihe River Oaks Corporation — managed a most uoHouslou transformation, in the form of a smotl, well-ordered ship shopping centei Hint remains a citywide anomaly to this day. Ihe center's first increment, begun in 1937, welcomed pio-neer consumer of the nascent 77019 zip code with a semicir-culm band ol shops facing west onto Shepherd, defining an exerJra-shoped pinking area ornamented by a pair of sheom-lined service stations (According to Ihe Rivet Oaks piospectus,

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Stephen F. Austin passed through the neighborhood o centuiy before bul was unable to piocure drinking water for horses or riders.) Beyond Ihe Piazza di Petroleo, the oichitccls, Oliver Winston with Stoylon Nunn and Milton McGinty, brought shop rows close to Giay, leaving a slendei paved margin lor head-on sireet parking. A second phase, built in 1948 on either side ol the nexl block east (William G Foiiington Co., architects; Ray Bragniez, designer), placed continuous one- and two-slory frontages just far enough back to admit a double loaded oisle of off-street parking.

The effect was something like a prophylactic transition lo the disarray that lay even farther east of Eden. It hardly mat-tered that the center's shops ond eateiies were mostly ordi-nary, oi thot the movie house that arnved in 1940 (Pettigiew and Woiley, oichitects) showed only second-tun features. Il was enough thot the center looked and acted Ihe pail of a mercantile Via dello Conciliazione, cateiing to Ihe needs of o genteel clientele in search of an occasional carton of moo goo gai pon or a package ot Alka Seltzer Bul as shopping became mare plentiful up ond down Shepheid and along Westheimer Rood and Knby Diive in the post-World War II years, the cen-ter's prospects dimmed, its offerings declined, and it even began to look a little forlorn. Where once trade dress had been

tie iigueur, abenont awnings, come-hiltiei neon, and over-reaching parapets sprouted.

In 1971 ihe Weingoilen Market Realty Company acquiied the center in partnership with the Ameiican Nationol Insurance Corporation of Galveston. The new owners first proceeded to extend the center a block further east on the north side of Gray by constructing a dtab lilt-wall Wemgarten's giocery store ond en ancillary block ol shops including a Watgreen's drug-store and a Goodyeai tiie stoie — all placed as lot back fiam Ihe street as possible behind a virtual sea of parking. In 1 9 / 5 , as if to moke amends, the management set about a tactful revival of Ihe oldei parts of the center. As leasing agent for the center, Mike Woods convinced several upund-coming ail gal-leries — Cionin, Moody, and texos — to relocate to afford-able spaces on the back, south side ol the center along Peden Sheet. On Ihe front he lined up a singles bar and pizzeria to replace a paint store; a ready-to-weai boutique that made fit-ting room for adherents of Gloria Sleinhem as well as Diana Vieeland; a French bokety with o green-cord-certdied baguet-teer; ond a lire-breathing Hunan restaurant. To further exorcise Ihe demons of stodginess, Woods tucked in on oftei-hours club and leased studio space up above shops and restaurants lo the Houston Ballet and Thentie Undei the Stars.

In concert with Woods's progmm to reconstitute Ihe tenant mix, Eugene Aubry of S. I. Morns Architects was given brush blanche to improve the center's curb appeal. A coal of white paint was applied to the stucco and buck expanses of Ihe upper walls to set them off from Ihe black Vitrolite and tile cladding below; a canvas fiieze of graphically muled whiteon-black silk-screened signs wos installed us a 15-milefln-hour gazetteer; and dozens of full-grown Woshingtonia palm trees were trucked in horn Florida nnd planted single file up againsl the curb. Aubry's Gulf Coast tuxedo chic has endured several minor makeovers since — including the addition of a pair of incongiuous clocks over the entrances la the courtyards ol 1964 and 1973 West Gray in 1988. But most improvements have been low key, including o lecent seiies of peripheral adjustments by architects Suzanne LaBarthe end John Rodgeis that focus an making the cenlei pedestrian-friendlier, particular-ly in and around eating establishments.

This last concern mirrors ihe predicament of the center's success: its emeigence as a multiplex of moie oi less afford-able, morkeMrended (ond parking-intensive) cuisineries supple-mented by whatever else can pay Ihe freight All bul one of the ait galleries has moved on to other track-lit venues. A lew small specially retailers remaia — cameias, records, dancewear — those such standbys as a hardware stole, an old prints shop, the patisserie, and a foreign-language hook-store have departed. Meanwhile, the arrival ol such lucrative

franchises as Starbucks, Chili's, and Talbot's confirms the essential logic oi the new oider. The one notable holdout is Ihe the River Oaks Theater, which in a reversal ol the for-tune ol every other vintage movie house ia Houston has sur-vived in a mainstieam "art" film formal with its bulcany con-verted into two minr-scieeas but its 600 orchestra seals anuclnonislically inlacl.

Outside Ihe short but charmed corridor ol the River Oaks Shopping Center, die rest of West Gray was lefl lo catch as catch could. The few landmarks it offered have since suc-cumbed to maricel forces: the pylon-prowed Golden Girl (Inlet Cnptoin John's) Restaurant (Stoylon Nunn-Milton McGinty, architects, 1940) , replaced by a Piei 1; the precariously con-lilevered, Wright angled Rettig's Ice Cteam Parlor (MacKie & Kamiulh, architects, 1948) ploughed undei lot parking; and Donald Barthelme's mildly Jotsonian Humble (later Exxon) ser-vice station, replaced fust by a more conventional station Ihot in turn gave way to a value-added olive oil dispensary, La Griglia (Kirksey-Meyers Architects, 1992) , substituting lable for pump service Ihe enormous Moderne concrete Mrs Band's Bakery (Alfred C. Finn.l 9381, which once provided a wondei-bread-white backdrop loi annual Snntii Claus visits and conspic-uous offslroel poiking foi sleigh unci reindeer, was recently lev-eled to make wny foi Blockbuster Video, a branch bank, and a biggei Walgreen's, the last two incorporating drive-in windows. A laur-story loft apartment building is aboul to go up across the slreel. Even the Shipley's Oonul Shop that once warmed the northeast of Dunlavy ond West Gray wild its steam-cuiling, pre-lottoeio cup-of-coffee sign, has been dispatched, along witii seveiol acres of mostly empty real estate, to make loom for Rivet Oaks Plaza — a reservoir ol pniking anchored by a 12-screen Odeon Cineplex, Luby's Cafeteria, and Office Max.

"Form follows parkiag," as Michael Eisnei explained in Ihe October 1996 issue ol Hatpei's, apropos the wonders ol the pedestrian-friendly Disney new town, Celebration, which eschews chain stores in its meticulously sctipied town center

for homegrown shops like those that made do for the Rivet Oaks Shopping Centei in its lirst incarnation. An early adver-tisement far the cealet noted that its developers had provided parking lor 1,000 automobiles on 150,000 square leel ol asphalt: "No disturbing thoughts ol parking tickets, ol swiftly ticking melers, will plague the patrons ol River Oaks Shopping Center," Ihe anxiety-plone weie reassured. Yet ihe relative giace with which this not-inconsiderable inventoiy ol spoces could be oaommodated 50 years ago is evidently a lost art, ludging from Ihe rest of West Gray today. Even the new, woe-fully misdeliveied U.S. Post Office adopts the full-fioninl pac-ing formal of its non-competitors.

Although ihe River Oaks Shopping Cenlei currently exceeds, by almost 25 pei cent, the loui paiking spoces per 1,000 square leet of retail area requiied by the City ol Houston's off-street parking ordinance loi multi-use shopping cenleis, paiking is nevertheless in short supply. Wheie the cen-ter's initial promoters once saw nothing but wide open parking spaces ahead, the restaurants lhat account loi much of ihe leasing fienzy of lute ure parking-intensive, os reflected in the city's standoid of eight parking spaces per 1,000 square feet lor freestanding reslouiants. In an effort to stave off parking deficit syndtome while saving the lace that attracts well-wheeled caidthrifts to begin with, the center is presently con-templating bi-level structured parking foi ihe surface lot behind 1964 West Gray among other meosures.

Peihaps nowhere bul Houston would the provision ol a double aisle ol parking between sidewalk and shop window be considered a gift la the street. But on West Giay, where even the second inclement ol the Rivei Oaks Shopping Centei will soon become eligible loi listing in Ihe National Registei of Historic Places, it accounts for much of Ihe civility and competi-tive advnntage of this rebanished remnant of an all-but-van-ished middle tetail landscape •

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West Gray ond Rivet Oaks Shopping Cenlei, ihrough the gates to Rivet Oaks.